Ericsson: Phones Getting Smarter; The Wild West Of Mobile Ads

Yesterday, mobile networking company Ericsson released new data and projections on mobile penetration worldwide. Today, the company says smartphones are 25-30% of all mobile phone plans, but account for 55% of mobile phones sold in Q3 2013. Furthermore, mobile subsciptions “are expected to reach 9.3 billion by 2019, and more than 60 percent of these -- 5.6 billion -- will be for smartphones.” Read the release.

The Wild West Of Mobile Ads

Business Insider reports that from its Ignition Conference, mobile advertising realities were front and center as Criteo prez Greg Colement suggested that mobile ads might or might not suck (we’re not paraphrasing). Also, The Weather Company CRO Curt Hecht said that when his company attempted programmatic buying and selling through mobile ad exchanges, it was hard to know who was who. Hecht stated, “It felt like the Wild West. We had people coming in saying they were only a data company and then a week later, they were a network." My mother, my sister. Read it.

Editorial Convergence

Editorial and ecommerce are converging, and Thrillist Media Group (TMG) is the latest to take advantage of the trend, MediaPost reports. The new feature is called “Shops” and it will put product information directly into editorial. “Of course, there is [editorial sensitivity] when you combine content and commerce and we think about that a lot … but innovative companies find ways to make it work,” said Ben Lerer, co-founder and CEO of TMG. Read more. Thrillist, Vox, Gawker and Business Insider are all part of a new wave of “digital native” publishing, reports Reuters’ Felix Salmon.

Video Traffic

When it comes to online video, Netflix and YouTube are leading the pack in the US, according to data from Sandvine. Interestingly, Amazon and Hulu account for very little peak downstream traffic, as GigaOM points out. YouTube is the dominant force in all of the regions sampled, which included parts of Europe and Latin America. Read more.

Stock Market Stuff

In Ad Age, Alex Kantrowitz reviews the plunge of ad-tech companies’ stock in the public markets when Tremor reported less-than-stellar earnings late last week. Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser tells Kantrowitz, “So far most investors have not paid particular mind to competitive issues that will inevitably come to bear on those [ad-tech] companies which have recently gone public. So it is safe to say that valuations have not reflected these factors to date." Read more.

Marketing Report Card

IgnitionOne released a new, in-house progress report -- “2013 Integrated Marketing Survey” -- that examines digital marketing efforts. “Moving away from complexity and toward simplicity is something that all marketers strive for, but aren’t all actually doing,” said Will Margiloff, IgnitionOne’s CEO. “This report further highlights the need for marketers to break down the silos within their organization and the challenges that they face in centralizing and integrating their digital efforts.” Read the release. And, get the report (pay with PII and first born).